In my simple universe I have a simple theory : there are 2 kinds of music. Techno ( and all related genres ) is music with no message, you can't understand it, it beholds no meaning than the sound itself. You have to listen to it with your belly, your abdomen. It's music that you have to completely endure, let it flow through your body. It envokes a trance, like the shaman repeating mantra's over and over. You have to feel it, feel the bass through your flesh. It's overwhelming, even threatening to those not willing to assimilate. The music exists in itself, as an assembly of tones, rhythm. Tribal music ( remember Burundi Black ? ) was the first techno imho. It aims for the legs. The music is the essence. The music IS the message.
On the other side, there's music with a message. The music in this sense only exists as carrier for the message of the composer. Whether it be to evoke the 4 seasons or to spread a fluffy message about a candle in the wind, it's music you have to listen to, reason about, understand. The author wants to tell something. Hiphop belongs in here, pretty obvious. The music is ( only ) a medium. In my simple universe there is also Jazz, on the boundary of these 2 types of music : jazz tries to catch the raw power of the first type ( call it techno :) ) in rules and regulations and standards as they exist in the second type of music. I'm not quiet happy with this thought, I must give it some more thinking. So for now I'll conclude : in Jazz music is a medium and a message. That's why I don't consider Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene or Vangelis' music as precursors of techno, although the music sounds techno, it has not that raw power that techno has, it does not invoke trance, the music in these cases is more a carrier for an image the author had in mind. Kraftwerk goes more the other way, autobahn or die klang der stern has more of that power in it. It's pretty obvious in this context that nor inspiration or knowledge are involved ( in the strict sense, of course you have to know which knobs to turn ), it's about tuning in into that energy that is out there, the rhythms of life... And maybe too much knowledge, trying to understand it and defining it in rules and prejudices is an obstacle. My 2 cents... :-G http://www.appletree.be > -----Original Message----- > From: Brendan Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: woensdag 14 november 2001 18:49 > To: '313@hyperreal.org'; 'Lester Kenyatta Spence'; Brendan > Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [313] Jeff Mills interview on-line > > > | -----Original Message----- > | From: Lester Kenyatta Spence [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > | Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 5:43 PM > | > | Hm. Although I don't think it is an accident that what we > think of as > | "techno" comes out of Detroit for the reasons you mentioned, I > | actually think hip-hop might be the first post-industrial > music...and > | that techno is the first to actually REPRESENT itself as > | post-industrial. Do you see the distinction? > > Yes, I see what you mean, and it makes sense... > > | But hiphop is the first music to violate those forms...and it > | was produced > | by some of the first casualties of the industrial > | era--"colored" (black > | american, black carribbean, latino, some white) men and > women who were > | unable to get jobs in the plants during the seventies. It > | took a low-tech > | approach with high tech tools and created a sound that was a > | pastiche of > | bits and pieces of previous work. And in juxtaposition to > | the megaband, > | all that was needed was "two turntables and a mic." Note how > | the scale > | becomes more human...in pointed juxtaposition to the > industrial trend. > > And I guess that a characteristic of post-industrial music is > an industrial level of *energy* suddenly being directed into > sound rather than into mass production - something that > hip-hop and techno share, in my opinion. You get the sense of > there being an industrial infrastructure either lying dormant > or in decay; while a lot of rock'n'roll always sounded like > "work, work, work" music (and having worked in factories > playing MOR radio stations all day, I've always associated > rock music with the process of industrial production), both > hip-hop and techno sound like, "well, here's all this > machinery and industrialised sectors of the city, but it's > not doing anything, just slowly decaying, and here's what > that decay sounds like...". Perhaps techno takes it a bit > further into "...and here's what these machines *should* be > doing!" - hence actually representing itself as > post-industrial music in a way that hip-hop doesn't? > > You are completely right about the actual scale though - with > hip-hop and techno, the scale is much more human, which is > interesting as both genres seem to have a wider "scope" than > rock'n'roll. Rock'n'roll tends to talk about human > situations, but the scale is vast; while hip-hop and techno > talk about wider or more abstract things while paradoxically > working on a much more human scale in terms of how the music > is made, performed and distributed. > > | Now the themes are definitely NOT post-industrial...but I > | think the music > | itself was as far as the social factors leading up to its creation. > > Although it's possible to maybe point to some early hip-hop > tracks that actually were distinctly post-industrial - "The > Message", "Ray-gun-omics"? But you're right, the themes > generally aren't post-industrial. Techno's avoidance of > explicit themes is possibly one of the most post-industrial > aspects of the music, in a way - what do you think? > > | (i forwarded this to a friend of mine who recently wrote a > book called > | BEETHOVEN'S ANVIL which deals with music and culture broadly > | considered.) > > Has this book been published? I'm very interested in that > sort of thing and would make an effort to pick it up if I > could find it anywhere... > > Brendan > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
